"ohh, i wanna dance with somebody!"

Ok, this just in! This whole post I did before the pub session and now.. I can't NOT update this post and publish it. HOLY CRAP! There were 16 musicians that were playing at once tonight (7 fiddles), all of them knew the exact same reels and then ALEX, my fellow fiddling comrade, joined in!!! He was able to guess the chords and sounded WONDERFUL! And then.. STARTED FOUR TUNES THAT THEY CAUGHT ON TO! So proud of him for stepping up to the challenge and putting himself out there, I wish I had the guts to do it! Our sweet dance teacher, Maggie, invited him into the group then bought us drinks and appetizers. Then, she got so drunk she asked me to go to the bathroom with her and we chatted about her American boyfriend (HA!) from South Dakota, ironic.

Maggie with President Obama!

 The Blarney Castle Hotel pub... where the session was tonight and all of the wonderful musicians

But.. before that... here is my past post:

Well I'll be...  never...  in my short 21 year long life.. have my legs EVER hurt this bad. Today was the day they attempted to kill us at University College Cork by giving us a two hour, no breaks for even water, Irish dance practice. We did however, complete a full Irish reel and hornpipe dance and I have to say.. I did a pretty darn good job! It was worth it, yes, and I will be able to take home the wonderful experience of learning two full Irish dances .. but.. I don't think my legs will ever heal. Our teacher, Maggie, might be the most wonderful dancer in the whole country though. Working with her has been a true honor. Though she may push us a bit hard, we got the privilege of watching her preform this afternoon and she can dance while playing fiddle and not miss a single beat. She has long, flowing red hair and wears bright red lipstick and AWESOME step shoes! She danced for Obama when he last visited and told us today she envies us for having him as a President. I love how every country I have visited talks about how much they love Obama over George Bush but as a majority our own ignorant people do not. But.. I won't get onto my views on politics right now.

 Maggie, my amazing dance teacher, and I

Anyways, the reason I feel as if it is necessary to blog today is simple: we just had a sing-off inside a hole in the wall fish and chips place with the Irish cooks. After a long day of hard, stressful shopping, we decided to try out this WONDERFUL fish place called "The Fish Wife" right across the street from our beautiful hotel, The Gresham Metropole. For five euro you can get a student dinner with friend Cod from the area and "chips" which in America is the exact same thing as french fries. While we were enjoying our delicate, melt in your mouth, steaming hot, Cod, Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" happened to come on the radio and the two cooks in the restaurant decided to start singing it, loudly. Then they proceeded to turn it up as loud as it could go which only meant one thing.. disaster for their restaurant. As music students.. we felt as if it was our duty to start screaming the words with them and literally scream-sang the entire song with the two cooks who couldn't stop laughing. I don't think the restaurant thought we were as good and cool as the cooks did, but oh well, as everyone here says "YOHO" (you're only here once). :)

My fish & chips (garlic and cheese style fries with fried Cod)

Tonight we will be visiting a pub in Blarney inside a well-known hotel to hear our dance instructor play fiddle and our professors will be playing. Alex, my fellow fiddling classmate, will be performing as well! He is so amazing at fiddle and this summer we will be playing quite a bit together back in Boone (luckily for me) so that we can eventually jam out together. I have much to learn. However, I will be Irish dancing with a few of the other girls to the hornpipes and reels that come on in front of our dance teacher. Wish me luck and good rhythm.. I may need it! But, if I get pictures of it I will be sure to upload them later and blog about how it went. I may need a few Murphys tonight beforehand but hey, you never know, maybe my calling in life was Irish dancing and somehow I'll do amazingly and there will be a famous dancer there that will ask me to stay here forever and perform! As they say in Hunger Games.. "may the odds be ever in my favor"!